Rod Serling wrote more than half of the one hundred and fifty-six episodes.
Rod Serling invited any viewers to submit a script. He was flooded with over 14,000 scripts, and he actually got around to reading 500 of them. But only two were any good, and he couldn't use them because they didn't fit the format of the show.
The network wanted Orson Welles as host / narrator.
The original version of the Twilight Zone pilot featured narration by Westbrook Van Voorhis. Van Voorhis' narration was replaced by that of Rod Serling when the show actually aired.
Guest stars included Robert Redford ("Nothing in the Dark" 3.16), William Shatner ("Nick of Time" 2.7), Leonard Nimoy ("A Quality of Mercy" 3.15), Martin Landau ("Mr. Denton on Doomsday" 1.3), Ron Howard ("Walking Distance" 1.5), Burgess Meredith ("Time Enough at Last" 1.8), Patrick Macnee ("Judgment Night" 1.10), Roddy McDowall ("People Are Alike All Over" 1.25), and Charles Bronson & Elizabeth Montgomery ("Two" 3.1).
Produced by Cayuga Productions, Inc., in association with the CBS Television Network. Most episodes filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. Pilot episode filmed at Universal-International Studios. Some second season episodes (1960-61) were videotaped at CBS Television City. Originally syndicated by CBS Films and then by its successor, Viacom, now Paramount Television.
All episodes in Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5 were thirty minutes in length. Episodes in Season 4 (airing from January to May 1963) were one hour in length.
Some episodes of the series were shot on videotape.
The episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (which takes place entirely on board an airplane) features authentically realistic cockpit dialogue, provided by an actual airline pilot who helped out the writers.
The episode, "Cavender is Coming", featuring Carol Burnett as down-on-her-luck Agnes Grep, was under consideration as a pilot episode for a spin-off series, and originally aired with a laugh track, the only episode to do so. The series never came about, but the episode did feature Sandra "Mrs. Kravitz #2" Gould.
Of the 3 "Twilight Zone" TV series over the years, this is the only one which does not include Rod Serling's image during the opening credits. Of course, this is the only one of the series to have the opening voice-over performed by Serling.
A comic book version of this series, "hosted" by the artistic image of Rod Serling, ran until 1982 - long after the real Serling had died.
Ranked #8 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Top Cult Shows Ever!" (30 May 2004 issue).
Rod Serling was ranked #1 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).
Rod Serling also wrote many big screen films including a remake of "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1962), "The Yellow Canary" (1963), and "Assault on a Queen" (1966). His most famous, however, was the classic "Planet of the Apes" (1968), co-written with Michael Wilson.
